Jean Paul Gaultier Couture Spring/Summer 2022 by Glenn Martens
Y/Project Creative Director Glenn Martens is the House's second guest designer for the couture collection after Sacai's Chitose Abe.
After the partnership with Sacai's Chitose Abe for Jean Paul Gualtier's Fall/Winter 2021 collection, Belgian designer Glenn Martens gets a turn to interpret the style of the enfant terrible of fashion for the Jean Paul Gautier Spring/Summer 2022 Haute Couture collection. In addition to being at the helm of Y/Project, Martens is also Creative Director of Diesel. Jean Paul Gaultier stopped the prêt-à-porter collections in 2015, and officially retired in January 2020 after one last Haute Couture collection presented during a sensational fashion show at the Théâtre du Châtelet.
The Gaultier Paris by Glenn Martens from Y/Project collection was staged in the Maison's headquarters. A return to origins for Martens, who is welcomed at the Gaultier home 15 years after his internship experience under the guidance of Jean-Paul after graduating from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. “We rarely have the opportunity to put together such elaborate silhouettes. For me, couture means pure beauty and elegance. Something that has nothing to do with street style," explains Martens.
A study on the corset , long flowing dresses, architectural ruffles, and stripes adding a Blade Runner touch, highlight the collection. Alternating are mega evening gowns, flared taffeta dresses with encrustations, and the ethereal flutter of trompe-l'oleil dresses that echo Gualtier's '90s collections and transform models into statues.
It is perfectly clear where a nod to Jean-Paul begins and when Martens' idea arrives, which makes the collection more current. For example, the marinière that appears in consecutive layers of tulle or multiple threads of velvet lacing. Even a simple knitted sheath dress shines for its materiality and construction, paired with maxi accessories. There are Belle Époque fabrics, Victorian shades, long medieval-style velvet petticoats with beaded chokers, corals embroidered in silver or garnet, patchwork crystals and antique intertwined brooches. The heir of the Maison has officially arrived, and we hope it will not be just a one-season collab.
